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1st Sacrificial Run
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Offline BamaDave  
#1 Posted : Sunday, November 04, 2012 6:40:19 AM(UTC)
BamaDave


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Hey,

I made my first run today. I have a batch of corn wash I have been fermenting but I didn't want to use that just to throw away so I decided to pick up a gallon of Everclear. For those that aren't familiar, it is 95% pure grain alcohol. I mixed it with 3.5 gallons water to dilute down to around 12.5% of 4 gallon wash. Below are my pictures along with notes I took during the run.

This run was without packing in the column. Is it really important to run packing?

10:50 - Started burner
11:18 - Began to see some vapor, turned cooling water on and decreased heat
11:22 - Collected 250ml
72% ABV - Stream was pretty heavy, turned down cooker even more.
11:29 - Collected 250ml
65% ABV - Still streaming but the stream was beginning to break into drops. Turned gas down more.
11:43 - Collected 250ml
70% ABV - Seeing 4 - 5 drops per second. No changes
12:00 - Collected 250ml
74% ABV - No changes - Increased gas to create pencil lead stream.
12:17 - Collected 250ml
68% ABV - No changes
12:30 - Collected 250ml
68% ABV - I broke my alcoholmeter, turned the gas up and ran the remainder off high with pencil lead stream.
12:50 - Finished run.

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P1010116.jpg (197kb) downloaded 4 time(s).
P1010117.jpg (176kb) downloaded 3 time(s).
P1010118.jpg (76kb) downloaded 3 time(s).
P1010119.jpg (102kb) downloaded 4 time(s).

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Offline Bushy  
#2 Posted : Sunday, November 04, 2012 8:30:06 AM(UTC)
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Hi Dave, sounds like you had a pretty darn good run on that pot still. Nice pics also.
The packing in your column will create some reflux in the tower but seeing as how you have no way of controling the tower head temp you won't be able to obtain a total reflux. One roll of copper mesh or one pure copper scrubber would probably help in reducing sulfides from the wash but I don't see any reason to pack your column.

Have Fun.
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Offline Mkjt88  
#3 Posted : Sunday, November 04, 2012 8:31:53 AM(UTC)
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I use a small 12qt still so I don't know exactly how hard to run something that size. In my knowledge of literature it seems like the run was kinda quick? Someone correct me if I'm wrong but maybe try to keep your drip rate under 5 drops a second. Mine drips at 2-3 per sec and no more. This gives a higher abv and cleaner tasting likker.
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Offline ohyeahyeah  
#4 Posted : Sunday, November 04, 2012 11:21:08 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Mkjt88 Go to Quoted Post
I use a small 12qt still so I don't know exactly how hard to run something that size. In my knowledge of literature it seems like the run was kinda quick? Someone correct me if I'm wrong but maybe try to keep your drip rate under 5 drops a second. Mine drips at 2-3 per sec and no more. This gives a higher abv and cleaner tasting likker.


It depends heavily on the style of still and diameter of column. Considering his percentages i would say he was pretty much spot on for a pot still. Not that it matters since it was a cleaning run and you don't drink the product so you can run hard and fast as you want.

I calculate the wash as being 20%, not 12 though. Unless you only used a half gallon of everclear?
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Offline cczero  
#5 Posted : Sunday, November 04, 2012 2:12:07 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: BamaDave Go to Quoted Post
Hey,

I made my first run today. I have a batch of corn wash I have been fermenting but I didn't want to use that just to throw away so I decided to pick up a gallon of Everclear. For those that aren't familiar, it is 95% pure grain alcohol. I mixed it with 3.5 gallons water to dilute down to around 12.5% of 4 gallon wash. Below are my pictures along with notes I took during the run.


Something doesn't make sense here. Your started with 576 oz of liquid. which contained ((128*.95=121.60 oz) of alcohol and only returned 35 ounces. You didn't even get the original 121 oz that you added. Someone check my math. I'm old but and could have misplaced a decimal or two. 250ml = 8.5 oz total oz = 6 * 8.5 = 51 oz of output. Where's the remainder of the original 122 oz of everclear? Even if you produced another 250ml after you alcoholmeter broke it still doesn't explain why you didn't retrieve the original 122 oz of everclear. Maybe you added a quart of everclear. I hope you haven't dumped the backset. Someone please tell me I've made a calculation error. I realized you're only talking about the sacrifice run but still it wouldn't account for the loss of ETHOL output, would it? I'm wondering why you would use the everclear on a sacrificial run anyway. Seems wasteful to me. I just used a sugar wash and ran full throttle on my first sacrificial (with all packing in place). Don't mean to be judgmental, only offering my input.
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Offline BamaDave  
#6 Posted : Sunday, November 04, 2012 2:47:53 PM(UTC)
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My apologies for the misunderstanding cczero, I quite measuring on #6 and ran the remainder into larger quart jars. I was only measuring and such just to get an idea of how everything would run under normal operation. After breaking the meter, there wasn't much need for me to continue splitting into increments.

As for the question about why use everclear. I don't consider it judgmental at all, no worries here. I didn't have any more fermentation tanks available. I have two batches of beer in separate fermenters and a batch of corn wash in another. I thought about going to buy another bucket to ferment another wash in but honestly, I am running out of room so it was either sacrifice more room for another fermenter or spend a few bucks on some spirit to run through. I opted for the everclear. Did I mention my wife is getting a little pissy about buckets of fermenting liquids strategically placed all around the garage? Yep. I took the easy way out.
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Offline cczero  
#7 Posted : Sunday, November 04, 2012 3:02:35 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: BamaDave Go to Quoted Post
Did I mention my wife is getting a little pissy about buckets of fermenting liquids strategically placed all around the garage? Yep. I took the easy way out.


I feel your pain brother. Let me know if you figure out to convince her it's a hobby and she should be supportive. I had to move my operations into the back woods, LOL. My mistake was watching instead of recording the episodes of "Moonshine". Good luck and happy brewing.
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